Essential Basque Country Trip in 8 Days

“We would like to spend 8 days on our trip. Hopefully in extended the time we could have a tour of a little of France coast line (Biarrita San Jean de Luz. Also like to Maybe go to Fuenterrabia and Pamplona and then swing back to to Balbao to sleep and fly out.

Since none of us know the area well, I leave the adjustments to those cities up to you. Also who does the driving and picks the hotels we stay in? We like to walk but not hike long periods. We need 2 single rooms and one double.”

Summary of the trip planning conversation

Below are some useful excerpts from the trip planning conversation

Iñaki RubioThanks in advance for your interest in this corner of the world. This is Inaki writing from San Sebastian, my mothertown. It will be a pleasure to help you to set a memorable tour here for you.

Of course, we can do the French Basque Country and explore those areas you mention: Hondarribia, Biarritz, San juan de Luz...... it’s so pretty, and very good food. Take in mind we are experts in tailormade tours, so we can adapt and change whatever is more comvenient for you. So feel free to tell us your preferences. Pamplona too (just one hour awa from San Sebastian. And even, if you are interested in wine, we could visit La Rioja wine region, the most famous wine region in Spain. Would you like it?

We have lovely hikes and activities that we’ll adapt for you.

What about food? What kind of food and restaurants do you prefer? Are you familiar with the Basque cuisine?

What kind of hotel do you prefer? Different categories. Medium, good, top? We always like to work with the best deal between quality and price. Sometimes is better to pay a little bit more and some other times is not that necessary.

We are a team of guides and sometimes we drive you for the activities, sometimes we use local drivers.... you don’t need to worry about the logistics. We provide everything necessary. Also you will have time for you and to enjoy on your own, of course.

First weeks of May could work better.

Looking forward to hearing from you and continue working on a great tour for you.

TravelerOk. We are not sure exactly what we want to see. We are four friends who play tennis together. We like to eat good food, only two of us drink, we like to walk but not hike long stretches. We are 65+ years. We are well educated and enjoy history, TV, and music. We were told that Bilbao's building was fabulous but art instead just so so. We like boutique hotels on the good or better side. Definitely want to see San Sebastián, bit of France and heard Fuenterrabia might be fun.

Hope that helps you plot an itinerary which we can look at. I need to pass it by the rest. We are planning to fly into Bilboa airport. Will start looking for flights next couple days when we find a trip.

Iñaki RubioWe have already designed a couple of tours that we understand they can work very well for you. Let´s see if you like our proposals. The idea is that you are accompanied when necessary and you won´t need to worry about any logistics, just to enjoy the experiences and landscape. We have planned a couple of tours, one includes La Rioja wine region and the other one more day in Bilbao and in San Sebastian. Both are very complete and you will see all the essentials and more of the Basque Country in both cases. Best. Inaki

Travelerthank you for the suggestions. I heard that Santiago de compostela is supposed to me a very interesting place but might be well off beaten path. I thought that Inaki would be with us the whole time during the day or someone anyway. Guess I misunderstood. I will also talk to the woman about staying longer than 8 days , so that we are away 10 days traveling on days 1 & 10 giving us 2 more days. That way maybe we can add a few more sites like Santiago de Compostela.

Iñaki RubioSantiago de Compostela is a very interesting city because of the famous pilgrimage Camino de Santiago but it’s 500 miles away from the Basque region you told us.

I don’t know if you wanted to rearrange the tour including that area.

You will be accompanied most of the time of course by me or one of our driver/guides.

Here you are an aprox idea of a great tour here in our motherland. I can guarantee an unforgetable tour and experience. I would do my best in order to be with you, but pretty busy year and I can’t guarantee it right now. But we sre a group of very qualified guides with many years of experience. You will be always in the best hands possible.

We have calculated a high standard trip (modern Mercedes van, lovely great charming boutique hotels very well located in the action).

I hope you like the planning. Any question, comment...etc make us know.

Travelers Review

Inaki was really wonderful. He was very good at giving us a full experience on all the many facets of the Basque country. He is very enthusiastic about his country and is extremely knowledgeable. I had a great time and he was very, very good. Was attentive to our needs and gave up choices. The Cooking Lesson and the Pintos tour was a lot of fun. He also did a video of our trip for us. What a nice touch!

Inaki was fantastic. He has very attuned to our needs. We were four woman and he kept us all happy. He had made special every where, so no matter where we went to sight se, cook or eat he knew someone and we were given the royal treatment.

We would all use him and again and have already written to our friends who will be coming his area.